The reason I hate EA (moreso than I already do) is because of things like this. Sega finally created a product of equal (perhaps better) quality than Madden with ESPN NFL 2k5, and releases it at a cheaper price. What does EA do to compete? It doesn't compete, it just throws its money around until it gets its way.
From a business standpoint, this is brilliant for EA. Now everyone's going to buy Madden. Fact of the matter is Joe Six Pack casual gamer is going to go for the football game with their favorite players and teams, not the one with a fake league. However, you can probably be sure that the next five iterations of the game are going to stagnate even more than they already have in the last few years. After all, why improve when there's no one to compete with you? Now EA can make more revenue, spend less money and reap the profits.
And what benefit is there for the NFL? If they release multiple licenses, then they earn royalties from more than one game. With this move, EA will get more customers should 2K/Blits fans jump ship to Madden, but those that don't equal lost money for the NFL. EA must have thrown some serious cash their way to get them to make such a move.
This news wouldn't worry me nearly as much if it had nothing to do with EA. Unfortunately it does, and Electronic Arts has screwwed up too many franchises, destroyed too many gerat development houses and scoffed at actual innovation and quality in their releases for far too long for me to trust them. If this ends up being as big a money maker for them as it should, then there is no stopping them from trying it with other leagues, or with other licenses franchises. It also encourages other large publishers like Vivendi to do the same, making oppurtunities for upstart developers and teams slim to none.
EA Sports: Its all the same.
1 comment:
Absolutely. The fact that Microsoft is actually in the games industry now and is still hated more than EA among the gaming crowd(at least for the time being) says something
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